The best laid plans..

Sunday, 10 December 2017

This weekend was the much anticipated kids hiking trip that Zali, Jett, Toby and Miley had been planning and looking forward to for months.

Sending the kids off unsupervised was something Jon and I had taken seriously.

So back in October I ran the proposed route and visited the campground to make sure there was mobile phone reception and access to water. I also checked the vehicle access and I found a place for Jon and I to stay that was just a 20 minute drive away.   At home we got the kids to set up  & pack up the tents & equipment, and I taught Zali and Miley how to use the cooking stove, then supervised them using it safely to cook noodles and make hot chocolates.  We'd gone through basic first aid and snake bite treatments, and what to do in case of emergency. Of course, even with their experience and the training  I didn't think they'd have a mistake free trip.  In fact I was kind of hoping they'd make some small mistakes they could learn from - like leaving food out for the possums, or leaving their clothes out in the rain - things we would no longer have to nag them about when we hiked together!   Unfortunately the lesson they learnt was a much bigger one.

 More on that later.  Here they are at the start of the hike.  

Zali and Jett were carrying fully loaded large packs for the first time ever . Miley was also carrying a serious looking pack while Toby, the only one who hadn’t done an overnight hike before was carrying Jett’s smaller pack. They were both nervous and excited.  

The rest of the photos were taken by Zali.   

The route wasn’t sign posted, and there is a bit of a network of tracks so Zali told me they had some navigational problems early but after a while were able to relocate confidently and proceed along the planned route.  With snack stops of course..

They saw a snake along the way which isn't surprising given the nice weather and terrain.  

Arriving at the campsite by the beach they were shocked to discover they were supposed to pay for camping.  When I visited I hadn't noticed this at all - thinking back it's because I ran in along the tracks, not along the road which has all the signs. After a flurry of text messages I managed to convince them that no-one would kick them out (there wasn't an on-site ranger anyway) and that they didn't need to worry.  

From Zali's photos it looks like they spent a lovely afternoon playing by the beach.  It's a super-safe beach as you'd have to walk about 500m out to sea before you got deeper than your waist! 

Putting on sunscreen - I"m so proud!! 

 Their camp setup looked really good..

It was after the card game that they decided to start on dinner.  It's also where the photos stop and my worst case scenario came to reality.

From what I've been told, they started up the stove and firstly boiled a few loads of water and poured it into their empty water bottles, so it would be good to drink the next day during their hike out.

Then they boiled more water and poured it into Toby's noodle cup thing.  Then, in the act of putting two minute noodles into the next lot of boiling water Zali and Jett overbalanced the cooker (the exact details are a bit hazy but I think Jett was putting noodles into the water while Zali was trying to stabalise the cooker with the tongs she had in her hand) and it tipped up, pouring boiling water onto Miley's nearby sock-clad feet. Unfortunatly at this exact moment, Miley wasn't looking, so the first thing he knew was that his feet felt like they were on fire.  He immediately took of his socks and the rest of them poured what cold water they had left onto his feet. Them Miley raced down to the beach and stood in the water.  

This is when Jon and I received the phone call from Jett. We'd recently returned to our accomodation after our long run/hike, and I was moments away from starting dinner.     We quickly jumped in the cars (we needed to take two so we could get all 4 kids to the hike), and drove out to assess the situation. It was immediately obvious that Miley needed to go to hospital - the skin peeling off both his burnt feet and it looked pretty bad.  Miley was really calm while he stood in the ankle deep water but it was incredibly painful if he came out.   The others were distraught and quite shaken up so we set about packing up the camp while Jon talked on the phone to various health professionals to get advice on how to transport Miley.  We could get him into the car easily enough, but once his feet were out of the water he was suffering a lot.    After being advised to wrap his feet in a wet towel Jon headed off to RHH with Miley and Toby, while Zali, Jett and I returned to our accommodaiton at Nubeena to pack up the rest of our stuff then follow them home to Kingston.

Jon tells me that the towel wasn't helping Miley much, and the nurafen I'd given him before he left wasn't making much of a dent in the pain, but luckily Denny had called ahead and somehow convinced the Dunalley Hotel to provide them with a bucket that Jon could pick up on his way past about 30 minutes into the 80 minute journey.    Filled with water it made a huge difference for Miley.  

Jon met Robin at the Royal Hobart Hospital where he was eventually treated and was able to go home at about midnight.   We were all hugely relieved to hear that the burns weren't the worst, and he's going to recover just fine. He won't be able to wear shoes for a while.   Thank goodness.     

My three biggest concerns for this trip were always a snake-bite, tree-fall, or a cooking accident.  In fact earlier in the day I said to Jon that I was looking forward to it being later in the evening as then I wouldn't have to worry about them having any cooking accidents anymore as they were planning on just having cereal for breakfast.   We couldn't do anything about a tree-fall (except keep them inside forever), and a snakebite was pretty unlikely.   So getting the phonecall from Jett about a completely avoidable accident was the worst.  It certainly wasn't the lesson I was hoping they'd learn from this but there's absolutely no doubt that they've learnt from it.  

Small decisions lead to big outcomes.     

We've talked since about how often it's not one single decision that leads to bad outcomes, it's the combination of small ones. and in this case I'd say it was the combination of the slopey ground (I had told them to cook on FLAT ground), the inherently tippy cooker - it's tall rather than wide,  the careless handling - I suspect that as they hadn't had any troubles up until that point, they were perhaps getting a bit blase - as evidenced by the fact that two people were attempting to doing something with it at once (Zali and Jett both feel terrible about what happened),  the closeness of Miley's un-shoed feet and of course general inattentiveness all around. 

On the other hand I'm thankful for the small decisions I made before they did their hike. If they hadn't had mobile coverage, or we hadn't had a way to get them out without having to walk, or even if we'd camped for free at Fortescue Bay which would have been more than 50 minutes away rather than paying for accommodation much closer, the whole situation would have been much worse.   

On the bright side, Miley is going to be ok (giant relief), and I'm confident I no longer need to worry about this as they will never again make the same mistakes when it comes to using that stove. It's still such as shame that trip ended this way as from all accounts (and the photos) they were having a fantastic time up until that point.  Jett described it as a rollercoaster ride from having a blast, to feeling very very bad.  Despite the trauma they are keen to do another hike which I am happy about.  

Hopefully Miley feels the same.  :)